How to photograph your work for your website and social media

Step-by-step

1

Natural light is your best tool

The single most impactful change you can make to your photos is to shoot near a window, in daylight, without any artificial overhead lighting on. Natural light is soft, flattering, and free. It makes colours accurate and eliminates the harsh shadows and orange tint that come from shooting under ceiling lights. For most service trades — cleaning results, nail art, food, hair, landscapes — moving near a window and turning off the ceiling light will transform your photos immediately. Overcast days produce particularly even, flattering light.

2

Shoot in horizontal mode for websites, vertical for Instagram

Websites and Google Business Profile photos display better in landscape (horizontal) format. Instagram grid posts are square or portrait. TikTok and Instagram Reels are vertical. Before you shoot, decide where the photo is going and orient your phone accordingly. Shooting everything in landscape gives you flexibility to crop for different platforms. Shooting only in portrait means your website photos will show black bars or awkward crops.

3

Clean your scene before you shoot

The background in a service photo tells clients as much as the subject. A clutter-free, clean background — a plain white wall, a cleared counter, a freshly made bed, a blank tabletop — makes the subject the only thing the viewer focuses on. Before shooting any 'after' photo, spend 30 seconds clearing everything that doesn't need to be there. For a cleaning business: clear the surfaces before photographing the clean room. For a nail technician: use neutral fabric rather than a cluttered table.

4

Take before/after photos for every service job

Before/after photos are the most compelling content for service businesses. They prove your results visually in a way that written testimonials can't. Make it a habit: before you start every job, take 3–5 photos of the starting state. After you finish, photograph the same angles with identical framing. The comparison does the selling for you. Set a reminder in your phone if needed. Once the habit is established it takes less than a minute per job.

5

Your phone camera is good enough — here's how to use it properly

The latest phone cameras produce photos that display excellently on websites. The difference between a phone that costs £300 and one that costs £1,200 is smaller than the difference between a well-lit phone photo and a poorly-lit one. To get the most from your phone: 1) Tap the main subject on screen to focus and expose correctly. 2) Hold the phone steady using a wall, tripod, or surface. 3) Clean the lens. 4) Use the rear camera, not the front camera. 5) Shoot in the actual camera app, not within Instagram — import after. 6) Take multiple shots and delete the worst ones later.

6

Edit minimally with the tools you already have

Small adjustments to brightness, contrast, and saturation using your phone's built-in Photos editor or Lightroom Mobile (free) make a significant difference. Adjustments to make: increase brightness slightly if the photo looks dark, increase contrast if it looks flat, boost saturation slightly for colours that look dull. Avoid over-editing — heavy filters look amateur. The goal is a photo that accurately represents the quality of your work, not a heavily processed image.

Common questions